As a classics minor in college I did all sorts of studying on ancient cultures and languages and the history of them. Something I always wondered about, but was never able to get an answer on, was, "Why did the worship of pagan gods drop off so steeply in the (western/ near eastern) world after Christ?"

You might think, oh, well that is fairly obvious, Christianity pushed them out. It was the whole, "You shall not have any other gods before me." commandment. (Exodus 20:3) That, while most likely partially true, never really seemed like it answered the question for me. That command, while applicable to Christians, was given to the young nation of Israel 800ish years before Christ.

Another reason I wonder about this that the Greek and Roman gods are effectively the same. And it's not just that, Ashtoreth (Ashera), to the Phoenicians, and Ishtar, to the Babylonians and Assyrians, is Venus to the Greeks and Aphrodite to the Romans. (She was the goddess of fertility) The point here being that some of those gods had a very long run as gods worshiped by man in the (western/near eastern) ancient world. It's not like some of them were "just worshiped by the Romans". (Which would explain them "dying out" as Christianity moved in, but they have a longer running history than that.)

I believe it comes down to power. In Exodus 7 Aaron "throws down" his staff in front of Pharaoh and it becomes a snake. Pharaoh is unimpressed and calls in his "wise men" and they do their thing, and throw down their staffs and they turn into snakes. The evidence here is that worship of these ancient deities (no matter what name they were worshiped under) was powerful. There was something to be gained and I think "magic" and elemental influence (weather, land, etc) was effectively the draw in the worship of these old gods. (People wouldn't worship something if they didn't think there wouldn't be a result.)

Because of the above I've always found myself wondering, "What happened?" to those gods and the ancient power. Why doesn't that translate after Christ? I finally think I have my answer. (I seriously have been thinking about this, off and on, for the past 4 years)

Lets start in Luke 4:

"And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." And Jesus answered him, "It is written,
"'You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.'"" -Luke 4:5-8 (ESV) emphasis added

Verse 4:6 is where I want to focus. In another translation: "And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish."" (NASB) Yes the devil lies, but partial truths are also just as damaging sometimes. Here in Luke 4:6 Jesus doesn't argue with Satan.

Now lets flash forward to the end of Jesus' ministry on Earth. After He had died and risen again He spoke to the disciples (right before the "Great Commission") and said, "... "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." (Matthew 28:18 (NASB)) It looks to me what Jesus is saying here is that the Earth is no longer Satan's house. Things are going to be different now because of the ultimate sacrifice He made.

Now, don't get me wrong here, Satan still has power. I think though that the power he had back in the ancient world has been broken since the resurrection of Christ, which is why we no longer see wide spread worship of those ancient deities anymore. They lack the power they once had.

This is a working theory and rough at best. There is most likely a lot more supporting evidence in many different places, but I haven't dug it up. I'm sure someone could probably write a whole book on the subject. (If they haven't already) My little "disclaimer" is that this is an imperfect idea and there are bound to be general flaws in the thinking, it hasn't gone through any refinement. I feel like for me, however, that this is an answer to a question that I have been looking for.

~B.

Labels: God

It's early... very early. 3am always seems to hit when you least expect it to. Sleep is like a freeway of time, I get on when I go to bed, and then I take the exit ramp in the morning and resume time in the normal way. Sometimes though I end up taking a wrong turn and wander around the suburbs of "normal time" by being awake at 3am. The rest of the world freeways through time in their sleep and here I am trying to find my way back.

As I was trying to find my way back to sleep I was catching up on some of the internet I have missed due to working. John Acuff over at the blog Stuff Christians Like posted a brief little snippet from his father's blog about faith.

His father said, "I don't want a life that requires much faith." (See blog(s) for context)

The general gist of the idea is that the natural state of people is to want security, and when you are secure in something it doesn't require you to have faith in God.

I've been kind of thinking around this idea myself ever since I've had cancer. I sometimes wonder if life would be so much easier without God. If I could simply live in one place, raise a family quietly, you know the "American Dream" thing. But then I get to thinking about it, do I really want to live like everyone else? Do I want to "live quietly"? Do I want to accept "normal"?

At the tough times yes. I do look yernfully at the supposed "peace" that other people have in normalcy. But you know what? That is one of the great things about faith. God is going to use me, put me in places I don't want to be. Grow me, stretch me, push me to do things I would never "normally" do. And He's going to give me His peace while I am there.

It's going to seem like craziness to the world when you are doing something that requires you leave "normal" behind and do what God has asked you to do, but that is where faith comes in. While I might at times want a life that doesn't require faith, I also don't want a life without God. God will take you and I much further in life than we ever even dreamed was possible, and that takes faith. And that creates an amazing story that God will use.

"...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
-Ephesians 3:17-21 (ESV)

~B.

Labels: God, praise, Testimony

It's strange because I have sung "It is Well With my Soul" I don't know how many times in my life and even heard the story about the guy who wrote the song, but today in church we sang that and the phrase, "It is well with my soul" really resonated with me for the first time.

I think the words really hit home today for some reason in that they actually came to mean something to me. No matter what happens to my physical body, or my mental sharpness, as a Christian, saved by grace, it is well [peaceful] with my soul.

It's given me a kind of peace in the somewhat rockiness that is life. I think a large part of what I have learned that makes that phrase mean so much to me has been through cancer, but a reminder of that has been through the migraines I have experienced in the past couple of months. Not like I really like the painful reminders, but I feel like I am getting to a place where I can say that as life gets rocky I know who is in control and where my peace comes from. And I can look forward to, as the last refrain from the song says,

"And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul."

~B.

Labels: God, praise

This morning has been full of tears for me. Tears of relief and joy and thanksgiving. I got an email this morning from my doctor saying that the CT scan was free of things that shouldn't be in my abdomen. Praise the LORD! I cannot thank you all enough for your prayers. The Lord has brought us all together through my health to pray for a common thing. I am thankful to all of you, and I pray that you would take some time, if you have prayed for me, to stop and thank the Lord for answering our prayers. (Assuming you were asking for healing...)

I am really busy at work today, but I am also very, very excited to be able to continue working for the next six months free of concern about cancer. Thank you all very much for your continued support!

~B.

Labels: God, praise

This morning I was catching up on some reading in blog land and I got to Parchment and Pen, that post (linked) specifically.

In the post C. Michael Patton is saying that we should love God the way a newborn baby loves his parents. He makes a comment about something one son said to him as he was talking to one of his newborn children. The exchange went like this:

"Not too long ago Zack was an infant. I remember holding him in my arms and was talking to him. One day when I was doing this Will (my then three-year-old son) profoundly informed me that Zack could not understand. 'Daddy, Zack does not know what you are saying!!' was his comment. I said to Will, 'This is how you learned to talk and understand. If we keep talking to him someday he will be able to respond.'" [Emphasis added]

That last sentence literally hit me like walking from inside a dark house and stepping outside on a bright sunny day. I had a clear and new view that I hadn't even thought about or considered before. I think the rest of the post Mr. Patton goes on to speak of a different topic (spiritual growth) but that sentence spoke volumes to me. In fact I couldn't get past that sentence without sitting down to write this.

If our default state spiritually is like newborns, we can't do anything on our own. We can't understand what God is saying to us. But God continues to speak to us in ways that He knows will teach us how to speak to Him. Struggles, hurt, suffering, blessing, grace and other ways. God pours all this out on us and we turn to God (or away from God) and ask "Why, why is this happening to me?" And a lot of the time we feel like we don't get an answer, but we are trying to talk to God. As we seek God in our trials (and blessings, but probably less in our blessings) we are learning how to speak to Him. It's God teaching us to talk to Him!

This is a hugely exciting revelation to me because it puts a point on what I go through when I go through suffering and trials. God does care for me in all things and no matter what happens, He loves me and wants to have conversation and communication with me so He is teaching me how to talk with Him.

Amazing!

~B.

Labels: God